Corporate Risk Management: A Primer

4 important questions on Corporate Risk Management: A Primer

What are the advantages of hedging risk exposures?

- Management has better control over the firm's natural economic performance.
- Decrease/reduce the high fixed costs associated with financial distress and bankruptcy
- Reduce earnings volatility to take effect of progressive tax rates (no higher tax)
- Increasing debt capacity (also increase interest tax deduction)
- Stabilize costs to stabilize prices
- REDUCE the cost of capital and enhance the ability to finance growth (Campello)
- Hedgers are able to invest more
- Economies of scale
- Access to better/more information

Practice:
- Markets are not perfectly efficient
- Find logic argument

What distinction between operations of the firm and its balance sheet?

Operations: ability to compete in the marketplace. The hedge has both a size and a price effect. Focus on comparative advantages and avoid areas where they cannot add value.

Balance sheet: fair game, zero-sum game. Most important, what price is it willing to pay?

Summary:
- Should risk-manage their operation
- May also hedge their assets and liabilities
The decision to hedge is also, in effect, a risk management decision that may harm the firm if the risk exposure turns into a loss.


How can company determine whether to hedge specific risk factors, including the role of the board of directors and the process of mapping risks?

- Are they hedgeable?
- Are they significantly important risk?
- What is the exposure?
- What are the costs/benefits?
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What are appropriate methods to hedge operational and financial risks, including pricing, foreign currency and interest rate risk?

Derivatives on OTC or public exchanges. OTC can be tailor-made, but these are less liquid, less transparent and involve counterparty risk. Specific methods:
- Internal, balance out
- Natural, borrowing money in foreign currency as well
- Derivatives (futures, options, forwards, swaps)

Most important is a static or dynamic strategy. This will go with different costs and complexity. Dynamic, can roll hedged over and over.

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